With huge thanks to Melville House and Nikki Griffiths for my gifted copy of this read, Delighted to be on the tour.
Detangling the plot:
London, 1679 — A year has passed since the sensational attempt to murder King Charles II, but London is still a viper’s nest of rumored Catholic conspiracies, and of plots against them in turn. When Harry Hunt — estranged from his mentor Robert Hooke — is summoned to the remote and windswept marshes of Norfolk, he is at first relieved to get away from the place.
But in Norfolk, he finds that some Royal workers shoring up a riverbank have made a grim discovery — the skeleton of a dwarf. Harry is able to confirm that the skeleton is that of Captain Jeffrey Hudson, a prominent member of the court once famously given to the Queen in a pie. Except no one knew Hudson was dead, because another man had been impersonating him.
The hunt for the impersonator, clearly working as a spy, will take Harry to Paris, another city bedeviled by conspiracies and intrigues, and back, with encounters along the way with a flying man and a cross-dressing swordswoman — and to the uncovering of a plot to kill the Queen and all the Catholic members of her court. But where? When?
The Poison Machine is a nail-biting and brilliantly imagined historical thriller that will delight readers of its critically acclaimed predecessor, The Bloodless Boy.
Bobs and Books honest review:
Firstly, if you haven't read the first book The Bloodless Boy - go go go!
Secondly, what I love most about these books is their effortless historical immersion. Lloyd is phenomenal is taking you into this world where its vivid, gritty and oh so real (the good and the bad!) The research on this read feels like it must have taken forever as there is just so much brilliant detail.
The plot is gripping and addictive and its good to see these characters shift and develop from book one as well.
This definitely receives my royal stamp of approval.
Out now
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